Berto to defy WBC order?

Looks like the team of WBC welterweight world champion Andre Berto may bypass Berto’s WBC-ordered mandatory against WBC Silver champion Selcuk Aydin. “I talked to HBO and I heard that [Berto’s promoter Lou DiBella] doesn’t want Berto to face Aydin and is working on other opponents,” said Aydin’s promoter Ahmet Öner. “But in boxing you can’t always get what you want. We are talking about a mandatory fight here. The WBC has ordered the fight and the reigning and defending champion should respect this decision. Of course, I understand that as a promoter DiBella is looking to protect his fighter and give him an easy win against an opponent with a good reputation. But this is not a problem of HBO being interested in the fight or not. It’s not my problem that Berto isn’t big enough of a star in the US that the general interest in his fights depends on the opponents. If Berto alone isn’t interesting enough for HBO we can easily do the fight in Turkey. Nobody cares about Berto there but TV and fans care enough about Selcuk Aydin to pay good money for the fight. We can make an offer to Berto and DiBella today to fight in Trabzon which guarantees him probably more money than he’ll ever get from HBO. The WBC is not called World Boxing Council for nothing. There is no rule that championship fights including US fighters have to be in America.”